Building Analyst Certification Upgrade

If you haven't seen it already, BPI has some important information posted on their website regarding upcoming changes to BPI certification exams. Existing topics are being upgraded and new topics are being added. Updated exams will be available at all BPI Test Centers on 2/1/14. CEU requirements are affected too. Check it out: http://www.bpi.org/professionals_upgrade.aspx?utm_source=print&...

Replies to This Discussion

I didn't reply when this was first posted, but the silence seems to confirm my feeling, ug! Do we really need to keep sharpening the pencil, owners are already rejecting the complexity and cost. If change is needed it needs to be in the value we offer, a better product at a lower price, and we can't lower any prices if we have to constantly retrain at a higher (more expensive) level. The message to BPI needs to be, give us something that works today and for the next 10 years. I know 10 is stretching but if we ask for 5 they will give us 2.

Your reply is almost identical to the advice I used to give new enthusiastic recruits when they considered the energy trade, 8 years ago. Unfortunately, things are a lot different now. Energy costs are trending down. Home owners are not trending towards home performance, being pushed but not trending.

My first classes in energy auditing were part of Maine's WAP program so I got to meet and talk with several managers from that side of our industry. One in particular was very upset at any increase in testing as it all translates to time and on one side he was being ordered to complete more jobs per week and the other he had to attend these classes to to learn about the extra work to be required. He said, they can't have both .

Be it WAP or an independent, the time on the job is out of control for what we can charge. Adding more steps, more testing, more training doesn't work.

We need one simple diploma that says we know the basics, then individual certifications that say we have added other specific knowledge. But the diploma remains in effect forever, just like a college degree. CEU's are a joke, so in the end many have to test from the start. How many times are we supposed to start over?

I'll jump off my soap box, but we cannot be the gods on the job. Other contractors need to get on board and install and test their own work.

Changing the basic class and making it more complex raises the bar at/to entry, which seems really dumb. Don't we want to attract MORE people to learning these concepts?

And aren't Energy Modeling and Improvement Design complex enough and important enough tasks that they deserve their OWN courses of study and recognition of excellence via certification? Isn't a large part of the dismal failure of Home Performance nationwide (average realization rates at 50¢ on the dollar!) due in no small part to people oversimplifying these tasks and being rewarded with poor performing prescriptive oriented implementations that don't fix consumer comfort or energy problems?

Makes me wonder if EE leadership is a bunch of glad handing simpletons who don't get the value of good process and taking time to really think about design. In NY we need to bring Rick Gerardi and his crew back, they understood all the subtle interconnections and how seemingly small reactionary adjustments can result in huge unanticipated tectonic shifts.

I have been involved in insulation and weatherization for 28 years. I do it every day. I work with homeowners, contractors, HERS Raters, Auditors, ect. Got BPI Certified 3 years ago. My real problem with BPI is that they don't seem to have support for people like me. Earn verifiyable CEU's, classes, go to seminars all over the country. Yeah Right. So now my certification has lapsed. But I can pay more money, get retested, if I can find a proctor, and restart again. Promoting professionalism? I'll remember that when it's 2 degrees this Friday and I'm working

I know a lot of people who are letting their certifications go. Some of the best and brightest are leaving the industry, others are staying and just not recertifying. "Nobody has ever asked to see my card. If they ever do I don't think the expiration will matter to them."

When the $ cost of recertification is only a small part of the cost burden - they have no understanding or empathy regarding administrative or perception of risk, the ability to understand and assess their cost/benefit proposition is dramatically inaccurate.